100 Thieves are off to a strong start at
VALORANT Champions 2026 by defeating T1 2-0. The VCT Americas Stage 2 champions took down the Pacific 4th seed 13-8 and 13-9 on Summit and Ascent, respectively. Matthew
“Cryo” Panganiban had a standout series by posting a 45-23 score KD, with a particularly impressive 23-9 Chamber performance on Summit.
100 Thieves will now face
FUT Esports in the playoffs qualification match while
T1 will play
JD Gaming in the elimination match. After the best-of-three series, both teams attended the press conference to share their thoughts on the match, their experience in Shanghai so far, and more.
100 Thieves
Questions for Head Coach Laurynas "Nbs" Kisielius
What was the approach to this series against an opponent like T1? What was the thought process behind the team comp change in Summit?
Laurynas "Nbs" Kisielius: When it comes to preparation, there was nothing new for us. We have been preparing the same way throughout the year, especially since summer when he had a lot of events like EWC, Stage 2, and Champions. We have a formula that is working for us.
When it comes to Summit, we got manhandled by LOUD so we just took their comp and added a little twist of our own which was Harbor. I am happy that it worked and we were kind of expecting T1 to play the composition that they did so we were super ready. It was really good scouting from Erik (d00mbros) and Nathan (Kaimera) as well. We were ready for the comp they ran and we could have had an enough more dominant performance. After the first half, we were 5-7 down and up by like 10 or even more kills. The rounds we were winning were pretty dominant and the ones we lost were very close. I’m very happy with the performance the guys showed on Summit.
VCT China has had a very poor showing on their home turf so far. As a coach, have you noticed something lacking in their gameplay and something they can improve upon?
Nbs: Honestly, so far, they have been pretty underwhelming. It’s a little bit sad because Champions is in Shanghai. When you have this level of an underwhelming performance, it is never one thing and rather a combination of many things. We can start with the one that VALORANT came out in China later so they started later. You could say that EDG did win Champions 2024 but ever since then, it just feels like they are just a step behind in gameplans, overall macro, and just playing together as a team.
Usually, when I see Chinese teams and players play, there are a lot of individualistic moments and hero plays where someone gets a 3k or 4k in a round. There is a little bit of a lack of discipline here and there as well. It is just a combination of many things. Even if it was just one bad thing, they could still be winning maps here and there but so for it has been pretty rough. I really hope at least one Chinese team can make it to playoffs.
Questions for Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk
Americas has won all four matches so far at Champions without dropping a map. What would you say is making a great difference for Americas compared to other regions to have strong performances?
Peter “Asuna” Mazuryk: Before I talk about the regions, I was a little worried because Americas was 3-0 and we didn’t want to be the odd man out. It was nice to come out ahead and win a dominant 2-0. The biggest reason Americas is so good that we are playing against some amazing teams. We have the South American league combined with us so we have a lot more talent than usual. As a result, we have amazing practice.
We also import the best players from all the regions and also have amazing coaches. Our coaches are European and not even from Americas. So we have American players who know how to play the game at a top level. Matt (Cryo), Sean (bang), and me have played so many years before this and coaches who have been coaching for 6 years and have their own titles under their belt. It’s like a culmination.
From the other regions, we also have players and coaches like Georgio "keiko” Sanassy and Malkolm “Bonkar” RENCH. We just combine the best from every region. Ever since The Guard, and shoutout to the G2 guys, came into the scene, practice has always been amazing. Before that, it was a little bit rough. Ever since 2022, Americas’ practice has probably been the best in the world. It has all led to this point where we have three amazing NA teams and a Brazilian team that is always going to be incredible and LOUD is usually that team.
T1
Questions for Kim "KDG" Dong-gun
T1 never played Summit in VCT Pacific Stage 2. Why did the team pick this map in today’s series?
Kim "KDG" Dong-gun: We were practicing the Sage and Chamber composition on this map. We thought it was one of our strongest maps during practice when we looked at the process behind it all. When it comes to 100 Thieves, they played Phoenix on all maps in Stage 2. When it comes to Summit, it’s a lot like Lotus where it is really hard to get value out of the Phoenix so it was just a pick that we considered to be strong at and 100 Thieves would be lacking at.
Questions for Kim “stax” Gu-taek
We saw T1 pick Omen on Summit. Is there a specific reason why the team preferred Omen over Harbor and what are your general thoughts on Harbor’s state in the current meta?
Kim “stax” Gu-taek: I think Harbor in general, in the current meta, and on Summit is a good and viable Agent. We picked Omen in particular because we thought it suits our playstyle and our concepts a little bit better.
